How does Ophelia describe Hamlet?

The
relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet is
complex, and, at times, not altogether clearly defined. There are times when Hamlet and Ophelia
themselves don't seem to know what their relationship is.

Ophelia doesn't
give a physical description of Hamlet in the play, except to describe his clothing and his
demeanor in act 2, scene 1, when Ophelia is telling her father, Polonius, how Hamlet frightened
her.

OPHELIA. My lord, as I was sewing in my
closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his
stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle;
Pale as his shirt,
his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he
had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
(2.1.87-94)

The audience is told very little about Hamlet
and Ophelia's relationship prior to the events of the play other than at some time in the past,
Hamlet sent a series of love letters to Ophelia, and perhaps he said, or strongly implied, that
he loves her. He denies both of those things in act 3, scene 1.

OPHELIA. My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have longed long to
redeliver.
I pray you, now receive them.

HAMLET. No, not
I!
I never gave you aught.

OPHELIA. My honour'd lord, you know right
well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
As made the
things more rich. (3.1.101-108)

HAMLET. ...I did love you once.

OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET. You should
not have believed me; ... I
loved you not. (3.1.123-128)

Later in the same scene, after Hamlet abandons her, Ophelia gives a description of
Hamlet that seems idealized, but her description is tempered with the reality of the moment, and
she's dismayed about his transformation. Ophelia much prefers who Hamlet used to be, not who
he's become.

HAMLET. O, what a noble mind is here
o'erthrown!
The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
The
expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of
form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most
deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that
noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and
harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O,
woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! (3.1.160-170)

Throughout the play, Ophelia describes Hamlet indirectly, through
his behavior.

OPHELIA. He hath, my lord, of late made many
tenders
Of his affection to me.

... My lord, he hath importuned me
with love
In honourable fashion.

...And hath given countenance to
his speech, mylord,
With almost all the holy vows of heaven. (1.3.105-106, 116-117,
120-121)

In act 3, scene 2, Ophelia and Hamlet sit with
each other and have a somewhat sexually suggestive exchange of words prior to and during the
"play-within-a-play," but they have no other interactions.

At the
end of the "play-within-a-play, Ophelia leaves the stage with everyone else, leaving Hamlet
behind, and Ophelia and Hamlet don't see each other or speak to each other for the rest of the
play.

Hamlet doesn't witness Ophelia's descent into madness, and Ophelia
doesn't hear Hamlet proclaim his love for her when he leaps into her grave.

HAMLET. I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not,
with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. (5.1.270-272)